Heisting 101
by Thellana
Summary: Kasumi invites Sophie to a party to steal back a greybox. What could possibly go wrong?
1. A New Identity

**A/N: Apolgies for lack of uploading. I hope you enjoy though!**

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Heisting 101

Chapter 1: A New Identity

Sophie Shepard sits in the passenger seat of the skycar that Kasumi had procured. The master thief looks toward her as she engages the auto pilot on the vehicle. The petite human woman is clad in an outfit that is just as mysterious as she is. It is sleek but protective with a hood that covers her head and would hide her face well if Sophie wasn't sat so close. The only distinctive thing Sophie can make out is the purple lipstick on the middle of her bottom lip. "You look good, Ms Alison Gunn. Hock won't be able to take his eyes off you."

"Alison Gunn?" asks Sophie, her eyebrow rising.

"You run a small but talented merc band in the Terminus Systems." Kasumi activates her omni-tool and pulls up several dossiers which project onto the car's windscreen, there's one for each member. "I also took the liberty of giving you a reputation. Papers, witnesses, and I wrote an article in Badass Weekly. You're exactly the kind of person Hock will respect."

"I take I'm wearing this getup for a reason?" Sophie looks over herself, she is dressed in a black dress that is rather low-cut and she also sports a pair of black high heels. She can understand the idea behind the outfit but she hates it nonetheless.

"You can't show up to a party in full armour now, can you?" The thief smirks. "Besides, you look good. You should wear stuff like that more often."

"Now's probably a good time to fill me in on the details." Sophie says as she ignores the remark. Kasumi pulls up a video feed of the party they're heading too. Many people are mingling around a large indoor fountain.

"Our friend Hock is throwing a party for his closest friends, a couple dozen of the worst liars, cheaters, and mass murderers you'll ever want to meet. They're all bringing gifts as a tribute." Kasumi replaces the video feed with a picture of a life sized statue of Saren Arterius made of gold. She taps it to enlarge it.

"Well, that's…disturbing." deadpans Sophie. "I thought I'd seen the last of him two years ago."

"Our gift is a life sized statue of your old friend Saren, crafted with loving detail and packed to the brim with our weapons and armour. You can keep your pistol, as long as it's concealed. They won't hassle you over a sidearm." The thief removes the picture. "Now, here's the plan: we've got to get to Hock's vault which is likely at the back of the ballroom. Once there we need to case the security and start peeling away at the layers. The statue will be waiting for us so you can arm up. Then we waltz in and take Keiji's greybox."

"You put an awful lot of thought into this, Keiji must've meant a lot to you." Sophie notices as she looks to Kasumi.

"Was I that obvious? Keiji's greybox holds a lot of priceless and personal memories. He discovered something and it's very dangerous. I wouldn't have brought you if it wasn't."

"So what's in the greybox that could make it so dangerous?" asks Sophie with genuine interest.

Kasumi sighs and replies "It holds a lot of his memories. Everything from the plans and codes he stole to…all the time we spent together. And wrapped up in all of that is this dangerous secret. Keiji never told me what it was, but that information got him killed."

"Well, this ought to be interesting." comments Sophie

"That's what I was going for." Kasumi says with a smile as she accelerates the skycar toward the mansion that's appearing in the distance.


	2. Trouble At The Door

Heisting 101

Chapter 2 - Trouble At The Door

Kasumi lands the skycar in an available space and presses the door release. Both women step out of the vehicle and look toward the mansion. There's no denying that the building is very impressive. A small staircase leads up to a large double door which is flanked by massive windows on either side. As Sophie and Kasumi look around, they spot their life sized statue of Saren being looked over by an Eclipse merc dressed in a suit of black armour instead of the usual yellow. The guard wastes no time in speaking up when he detects a problem. His voice is sluggish and certainly gives away his boredom "Hold a moment, ma'am. There seems to be a problem with the statue."

As the two women look to the guard a voice with an Afrikaans accent catches their attention. "Is there a problem here?"

"No, Mr Hock. Just doing a scan." The guard seems to pay more attention and speaks a little more clearly as the man shows up next to him.

Hock looks to his guests. He is wearing an expensive white suit, his face sports a moustache, a small patch of hair just below his lower lip and two full strips of hair that run along both sides of his jaw and stop at his chin. His eyes linger on Sophie. "I don't believe we've met. Donovan Hock." The man's arms go behind his back and he cups his hands together.

"Alison Gunn. A pleasure." replies Shepard, trying to hide her utter disgust for the man in front of her.

The security guard speaks up again, having run some more scans "Sir, the scans aren't picking anything up."

Hock approaches the statue. "Hmm. I don't think our guests would come all the way from Illium just to cause trouble. Do you?" The guard rubs the back of his neck with his hand and then shrugs his shoulders and walks off to carry on with other duties. Donovan's gaze falls on Shepard again. "You may enter Ms Gunn, you were invited after all." His scrutinizing gaze then looks over Kasumi and his eyes narrow. "However, I must ask that your friend remain outside."

Sophie looks to Kasumi and then back to Hock. "Is there a problem with my friend?"

"I don't like the way your friend looks." is the callous reply before Hock proceeds to head back inside his mansion.

"Great. Did he recognise you?"

"No way, I'm the best thief in the galaxy. No one knows what I look like." is the confident reply.

"What now?"

"You'll have to do more talking, other than that nothing changes. I'll follow along cloaked." replies the thief, her cloak activating as she heads toward the doors of the mansion. Sophie follows along, her head shaking in annoyance.


	3. Peeling Away The Layers

**A/N: As you can see this chapter is fairly lengthy. I got rather carried away and wanted to have the security measures dealt with in one chapter.**

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Heisting 101

Chapter 3 - Peeling Away The Layers

As Sophie steps into the ballroom the first thing she notices is that no expense has been spared with the decoration and furniture. There are two spiral staircases which are cordoned off by velvet rope, several Eclipse mercs can be seen patrolling near the upstairs railings. A large fountain takes pride of place in the centre and people are dotted around it, including Donovan Hock, a wine glass in hand as he mingles with a group of guests. There's also several walls covered with priceless pieces of art. At the back of the room there's an outside balcony area with a breath-taking view of Bekenstien.

Shepard wastes no time in heading to the back of the room where she finds a pair of asari sat on a couch on either side of a human man who appears to be enjoying their company a little too much. Sitting on the couch to the right of them she peers over her shoulder to spot a small corridor below, looking left and right she spots a staircase at either end. "Well, we've found our vault." points out Kasumi over the comm, appearing from her cloak to enter through a door Sophie can't see. The thief paces slightly as she examines the different security measures. Sophie catches up and Kasumi starts speaking. "There's more here than I expected. Password protected voice lock. Kinetic barrier. DNA scanner - - Looks like an EX-700 series. Everything a vault needs to be impenetrable."

"This gonna be a problem?" asks Shepard.

"Please. Remember who you're talking to." is the boastful remark. "For the voice lock we'll need a sample of Hock's voice. So get him talking and I'll record it. We'll need a password too. There should be plenty of DNA in his quarters. And the barrier? Cut the power, never fails…if we can find it. Keiji could crack a system like this in his sleep. And I'm better." As Sophie turns to leave her omni-tool chimes and Kasumi continues to speak "Your omni-tool can now detect the electrical current running through the wiring underneath the floor, follow it and we should find a power supply."

Sophie exits the small room and heads up the right side stairs, following the wiring that is being shown to her. She walks past a group of mingling guests and a human female voice causes her pause. "Did you hear that Commander Shepard was sighted on Omega?"

A male human in the group responds "She's dead, so I doubt it was her. I hope it wasn't. The less people like her in the galaxy the better." As Sophie continues to follow the wiring, her fist clenches tightly as she hears the sound of wine glasses being tapped together in toast followed by a resounding "Here, Here!"

It doesn't take long for the Spectre to reach the end of the wiring; her omni-tool shows the power supply hidden away behind the wall. Kasumi appears from her cloak and reaches for a small statuette in an alcove; she pulls it toward her and a section of wall slides away to reveal the power supply. She wastes no time in overloading it. "A disguised lever is one of the oldest tricks in the book." comments the thief, smirking before cloaking again. She continues over Sophie's comm."I saw a locked door when we came in; I'm betting it's a security office."

Shepard looks around the room, spotting a circular door near where they had first entered the ballroom. Heading toward it she begins to make out the orange display indicating that it's locked. "This is it. Here, allow me." remarks Kasumi as she waves her omni-tool over the display which turns green shortly after. As the door opens it leads to a short corridor with another circular door at the end, this one's display is green. Reaching the second door, Sophie takes cover on the left of the door while Kasumi opens it and immediately cloaks. The two guards inside, who appear to have been on break turn to the sound of the opening door. They don't have time to react as the petite thief appears behind one of them; a deadly orange blade springs to life from her omni-tool, which she plunges into the guard's back. Sophie rounds the corner, drawing her Carnifex and placing a single shot through the second guard's visor.

"So what're we looking for?" asks Sophie as she enters the small room, stepping over the corpse of the guard Kasumi stabbed.

"A datapad, a terminal, anything that would contain communications between guards." Kasumi picks up a datapad on the desk near her and looks it over "Got it. The password's Peruggia. It also mentions a Chief Roe, could come in handy." She puts the datapad down and continues. "Might be a good time to get that voice sample as it's only useful when spoken by Hock." Sophie exits the first door they came through and makes her way toward Hock who's still mingling around the fountain. "Just get him talking, I'll do the rest."

Hock sees Sophie coming and steps toward her. The group he was with disperses to other parts of the ballroom. "Ms Gunn. Good to see you. That scene at the door hasn't soured your evening I hope." He extends his hand toward the woman in front of him.

Sophie shakes the man's hand, albeit reluctantly, her arms then fold and she studies Hock before she speaks "I understand the security, but who would try and break into the great Donovan Hock's home?" she starts, the compliment is forced but Hock doesn't seem to notice.

Hock drinks from his wine before continuing. "Gunn, in our line of work we attract a certain kind of element. Few understand the pains we take to keep the barbarians at bay." He turns toward the fountain and spreads his arms wide. "People these days want comfort, entertainment, love. They don't see that the galaxy is fragile." People around the ballroom are starting to take notice as Hock turns to face Sophie again. "They only have to worry about simple luxuries. Why? Because people like me - - and you - - are doing the terrible things that keep the galaxy spinning. This party is for us. The cleaners. The support structure for the galaxy's gleeful delusions of peace." He sips from the wine again, his arms spreading once more. "Let there always be a market for the things we do." The room explodes into thunderous applause.

Kasumi's voice sounds over Sophie's comm "I said get him talking and you got him talking. We've got enough of a sample now. Let him go. We just need the DNA now."

Heading back toward the vault Sophie spots another circular door, this one has an Eclipse merc stood in front of it. She approaches and the man's hands rise defensively "Mr Hock's private rooms are off limits to guests without security clearance."

"I have clearance." states Shepard confidently.

"Oh yeah? On whose authority?" challenges the guard, pointing his finger at her.

Kasumi's voice sounds in Shepard's ear "Tell him Chief Roe. I have an idea."

"Chief Roe gave me permission."

"We'll see." The guard raises his wrist slightly, speaking into the device there. "Chief Roe. It's Samuels, I have a guest here claiming she has access to Mr Hock's private rooms."

There's a pause as Samuels waits for a reply, around the corner however a de-cloaked Kasumi speaks into her omni tool, her voice disguised to sound like Chief Roe's. "Dammit Samuels, of course I gave them clearance, now stop bothering me."

"Uh, yes ma'am, sorry." is the panicked reply as he ends the communication. "Go on in then." he adds, opening the door.

Heading up a flight of stairs it doesn't take long for the two women to locate Hock's massive bedroom. A king sized bed is the centrepiece of the room. There's a small coffee table which has several wine glasses on it, a scattered pile of papers, and an ashtray with several cigarette butts in it, several arm chairs face toward a large bay window. Stepping further into the room a wide desk with a terminal on it catches Kasumi's attention, she reaches it and picks up a datapad from its perch on a pile of hastily stacked paper. "According to this Hock was making little progress in decrypting Keiji's greybox."

Sophie meanwhile is over by the coffee table scanning for DNA. Her omni-tool picks some up from the wineglasses and cigarette butts. "How much DNA is enough to fool the scanner?"

"More than the tiny amounts that is on cigarette butts and wine glasses." Is the reply as Kasumi puts the datapad down and heads over to the bed to scan it. "There's some here, although I expected more. Whoever cleans this room is thorough." The thief heads for the door. "Alright, that should be enough. Let's go." Sophie moves to join Kasumi and they both leave the room.


	4. The Vault

Heisting 101

Chapter 4 - The Vault

Back in the elevator room, Kasumi looks to Sophie with a smile. "Well, the barrier's down. That's a start." she approaches the voice lock and enters a command onto her omni-tool. The word "Peruggia" plays as if Hock himself had said it. A green light appears on the machine and the thief moves on to the DNA scanner, she waves her omni-tool in front of it and after a few agonising seconds the scanner recognises the small amounts of Hock's DNA and another green light appears. The thief looks to Sophie and smirks. "I think you've been rather patient, so here." she taps another command into her omni-tool and the base of the Saren statue slides out, revealing Sophie's suit of black N7 armour and a pair of Shuriken SMGs. "I'll check for cameras. Go ahead and suit up." adds Kasumi as she takes one of the weapons before opening the door to the elevator. Stepping inside she looks into the corners, spotting just the one discreet camera. She disables it with a wave of her omni-tool.

"Feels damn good to be out of that dress." says Sophie as she finishes suiting up. The commander looks to Kasumi "Good to go?"

"Yeah, camera's down. Come on in." She replies, beckoning with her hand. Sophie quickly joins the thief and presses the lone button to take them down into the vault.

Upon exiting the lift and entering the spacious vault the two women start to wander around to get better views of the various pieces on display. Kasumi's mouth is practically watering as she speaks. "Wow...Michelangelo's David." there's a pause as Kasumi admires the statue, which is more than a little worse for wear. She looks to Sophie with a twinkle in her eyes. "Think we can get this out the door?" Sophie doesn't even get chance to respond as Kasumi gets a look at something else and takes off in a run toward the other end of the vault "My god! It's the Statue of Liberty's head!" Shepard catches up to the thief who's gripping onto a railing and staring up in awe at the weathered green head.

Sophie places a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "You do remember why we're here, right? You're like a kid in a candy store right now."

Kasumi collects herself and turns to face the commander. "Yeah, you're right. Let's look for the greybox." The petite thief reluctantly pulls herself away from the railing and begins to wander around the various displays in the vault, looking for her partner's greybox. Sophie follows along too. Having systematically checked every display the pair comes to the last one. A small table raised off the floor, on it sit a pair of SMGs and a device that doesn't take Kasumi long to identify. "Here it is. Keiji's greybox." she then notices the SMGs "And I'll be damned..is that a Kassa Locust? No...It's the Kassa Locust. The gun that killed two presidents. Looks like Hock had it copied." She hands one to Sophie before activating her omni-tool to check the status on Keiji's greybox.

She doesn't get far as a projection of Hock's face appears on the wall above the door at the end of the room. "Don't bother, Ms Goto. It's codelocked. I had a feeling that was you at the door. I knew if it was really you you'd get through anyway."

"You know me, I don't like to disappoint." is Kasumi's remark.

The projection of Hock's face show his eyes narrowing "I need what's in your greybox, Kasumi. You know I'll kill you for it. I'll admit your skills are impressive. You got into my vault like I'd left it open. But you're still going to die, screaming, like your old friend." Kasumi snatches the greybox from the table and Hock's projection vanishes, not before he issues a final order. "Kill them!"

The door opens and admits a squad of Eclipse mercs lead by a rather angry looking woman with short brown hair. Both Shepard and Kasumi dive for cover behind the nearby displays in the vault as the bullets start to fly. Kasumi peers over her cover to return fire, taking out one of the mercs. Sophie follows suit and unleashes a biotic throw which launches another merc into one of the large krogan statues which results in a sickening crunch. "Kill these fools!" is the enraged cry of the merc leader, Chief Roe. Shepard unloads the clip of the newly acquired Locust into Roe's shields causing Kasumi to notice the blue flicker around the armour as the shields struggle to recover and the thief takes the opportunity to activate her cloak to sneak behind the unsuspecting Chief and plunge her omni-blade into the woman's back before re-cloaking to seek cover. The remaining mercs are soon picked off as their leader falls.

Sophie exits her cover and looks toward Kasumi, the thief is already looking at her omni-tool. "Checking blueprints. There's a landing pad east of here."

"Good." Sophie says as she gets on the comm "Joker, send the shuttle. Now!" Both women waste no time in heading through the door the mercs came from.


	5. One Last Surprise

Heisting 101

Chapter 5 - One Last Surprise

After battling through an underground garage, through mercs aplenty, an YMIR mech, and even having to resort to creating their own path by blowing a hole in the wall with a vehicle mounted mass accelerator cannon, the two women arrive at the landing pad Kasumi located. Looking around they both notice the lack of a shuttle. But that's not the only thing, they both hear a loud roar as the engine of a gunship powers up and appears in the sky above them. Sophie's eyes widen as the gunship starts to loom menacingly toward them. "Shit!" she yells as the main gun starts to fire on their location, the pair taking massive damage to their shields in the process of diving for cover among the nearby crates.

Donovan Hock's voice sounds over a loudspeaker "You could've done this the easy way, Goto. Allow me to show you the hard way." The gunship's shielding powers up, coating the vehicle with a blue glow.

"Ideas!?" yells Sophie from behind her crate, her head flinching as debris is kicked up from the gunship's ongoing fire.

"Yeah, I have one, just need to get close!" is Kasumi's reply

Leaning carefully from cover as the gunship's weaponry takes a break from decimating their position Sophie fires upon the shielding, emptying a full clip with no visible sign of damage. She reloads and returns to hiding as the ship looms ever closer to try and flank the pair, its main gun whirring to life to unleash another salvo of bullets. Kasumi frantically seeks new cover as her omni-tool powers up to deliver a burst of electricity to the gunship's shielding, causing them to flicker slightly.

The gunship banks hard to the left and retreats from the pair's line of sight. "Kill them!" shouts Hock over the loudspeaker.

"Company!" yells Kasumi as she notices several Eclipse mercs accompanied by LOKI mechs pour from the door the pair came from. The thief vaults over her crate to protect herself. Sophie creates a singularity before she takes her own cover, causing the unshielded mercs to be pulled helplessly into it. The mechs remain grounded however and open fire, hitting Kasumi's shields as she shoots at the helpless mercs who fall lifeless from the singularity. The thief returns to cover and allows her shields to recover while Sophie takes care of the LOKI mechs as they near Kasumi's location.

As the two women try to catch their breath the familiar sound of a roaring engine draws near. The gunship appears once more, the shielding back up to full strength. Kasumi runs to the left as Shepard dives into cover on the right. It opens fire on the petite human who climbs skilfully up a large section of piping, she jumps toward an adjacent pipe and runs along the top of it, the gunship is now hovering in front of her. Predator has trapped prey. Hock prepares the gun once more, eager to kill the annoyance in front of him. As he goes to fire though, the thief leaps toward the cockpit, grabbing onto a handle on the hull. He tries to shake Kasumi off by banking harshly. The thief stubbornly hangs on and manages to grip with both hands and scramble in front of Hock's view. She places her hand on the screen and activates her omni-tool which sends a large jolt of electricity through the gunship's systems. She salutes flippantly and leaps from gunship which starts to corkscrew out of control, smoke coming from the tail rotor as it crashes away from the landing pad with a satisfying explosion. Kasumi lands elegantly and Sophie approaches. "Damn. That was impressive." The thief just nods and Sophie opens a comm channel. "Alright, Joker. Send the shuttle now."


	6. Alone Time

Heisting 101

Chapter 6 - Alone Time

Kasumi stands silently in the shuttle's passenger bay, holding the greybox tightly. Sophie opens up the on board terminal's display and the thief plugs the device into a socket, her eyes become covered with a thin holographic visor and her head bows.

The thief raises her head after a short while to find herself in a dark room, the only light coming from two glowing blue circles on the floor, one inside the other. A figure appears in front of her, and before she can even voice her recognition, the recording of Keiji relays its message. "Kasumi, if you're seeing this, it's because I'm dead." The hologram raises its arm and causes several images to appear stacked one behind the other. Kasumi recognises some of them. Memories of a happier time. Keiji continues. "The information we found is all here. It's big, Kasumi. If the Council ever got wind of this…the Alliance could be implicated." Kasumi begins to walk alongside the row of memories, sifting through them with her omni-tool. "Kasumi. I…I encrypted the data to keep it safe. And I uploaded the encryption key to your greybox, so no one could get the whole package." The thief parts the seemingly endless row of images and enlarges one of them. A picture of the two of them holding one another. The hologram continues "But if I'm dead, and if anyone knows about this…then I've made you a target, my love. I'm so, so sorry."

"Keiji…" whispers the thief as she browses to another memory. As it plays she can't help but smile. She watches herself approaching Keiji who appears distracted by the datapad in his hand, she taps him on the shoulder and they embrace before parting with a short kiss.

"I know you Kasumi. You'll want to keep these memories forever. But you don't need some neural implant to know I'll always be with you. Please Kasumi, destroy these files. There's nothing more I can do to protect you."

Kasumi sprints back to the hologram of her lover, her eyes welling up. "I…I can't do that! This is all I have left!"

"Goodbye, Kasumi. I love you." is the reply, Kasumi hugs the lifelike hologram, clinging desperately to the last connection of her lover. The hologram disappears and Kasumi's visor along with it. She looks up to see Sophie close down the terminal, the commander gives a nod of understanding and sits down, the thief sitting opposite.

"Is there any way we can just destroy the information?" asks Shepard hopefully.

"No. Keiji's a master at encrypting files. He laced the information into his memories." says Kasumi, clearly upset. "You can't get one without experiencing the other."

"If it's that important to you, then keep it. Just be ready to live with the consequences." replies Sophie.

"Yeah, I am. I'll stay off the grid. No one will know I exist." the thief's confidence coming back slightly as she leans forward in her seat. "I think I want this. Thanks, Shepard." the petite woman activates her holographic visor again, bowing her head once more.

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 **A/N: And we're done. Thanks for reading!**

 **Let me know what you think because I value any and all feedback.  
**


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